Cooling of high flux commercial and military applications is an active research area within CALCE. The Thermal Management Team (TMT) contributing to CALCE/CEEE including Bar-Cohen, Ohadi, Rogers, Dessiatoun, and Shooshtarii. Several projects are ongoing in this area. The Smart and Small Thermal Systems (S2TS) Team (led by Drs. Ohadi, Dessiatoun, and Shooshtari) house a number of projects in the Electronics Cooling area.
The Computer Aided Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) Electronic Products and Systems Center is sponsored by over 50 commercial corporate and government organizations from all facets of the electronics systems industry in developing methodologies, models, and design tools that address the design and manufacturing of electronic systems. CALCE is recognized as a founder and driving force behind the development and implementation of physics-of-failure (PoF) approaches to reliability and life cycle prediction, as well as a world leader in accelerated testing, and electronic parts selection and management.
The CALCE EPSC is currently at the forefront of international standards development for critical electronic systems having chaired the development of several reliability and part selection standards. In 1999, the CALCE EPSC became the first academic research facility in the world to be ISO 9001 certified. Major efforts of the CALCE EPSC include:
- Design for Reliability and Physics-based Reliability Assessment
- Accelerated Test Methods
- Industry Standards Development
- Electronics Supply Chain Management
- Reliability Analysis and Qualification
- Life Cycle Management and Obsolescence Management
- Prognostics and Health Management
Thermal management of all electronic products is motivated by controlling each component at its required operating temperature range to minimize or eliminate thermally-induced failures.
Over the past few years, CALCE/TMT researchers have been investigating a number of cooling schemes that can be applied to electronic systems. These include natural graphite-based heat spreader, air cooling heat sink, single/two phase liquid cooling, cold plate with porous foams and other micro-structured surfaces. Thermal management is becoming increasingly critical to the electronics industry to satisfy the increasing market demand for fast, smaller, lighter and cheaper products.
Mission
The object of CALCE/Thermal Management Technology (CALCE/TMT) consortium is to develop methodologies and models for emerging thermal management technologies in the next generation of advanced and high-performance electronic products and systems.
Background
The increased system miniaturization and the continuous demand for high performance and reliability electronics has brought about a requirement for sophisticated thermal management technologies for cooling of the next generation of electronics for commercial and military applications. Thermal management technology is moving beyond “fins & fans” into cooling solutions that are optimized for a particular application and in some cases integrated into the electronics at the chip package level.
The Smart and Small Thermal Systems Laboratory (S 2 TS) has been involved in a number of projects in active heat transfer augmentation techniques for the last decade, which has established the technical know-how and the knowledge base critical to successful implementation of emerging technologies in practical applications.
Through affiliation with the CALCE center, the lab focus on development of smart and small thermal management techniques as a solution to the future thermal management, which offers several opportunities: the ability to spot – cool high heat flux regions, the enhancement of macro-level performance by optimizing micro-level heat transfer, and enabling of system-level miniaturization and integration. Particular emphases are: compact in size/volume, smart features such as active (on-line/on-demand) control, feasibility, manufacturing, cost-effective, and environmental-friendly. Smart and small thermal management technologies may be introduced in future electronic products.